Eobard Thawne was a brilliant scientist born in the 25th century, where Barry Allen's heroism as the Flash is the stuff of legend. Seeking to emulate his idol, Thawne traveled back in time to meet the Flash, but learned instead that his destiny was to become the Reverse-Flash, Allen's greatest nemesis. Rendered unstable by this knowledge, Thawne set out to erase Barry Allen from history and establish himself as the one true Flash.

Origin

In the year of 2466, Eobard Thwane inherited a virtuous amount of wealth from his family; this would help fulfill his life long dream to be a Flash. One day, Thawne passed an antique shop and saw the Cosmic Treadmill. Instantly recognizing it, he bought it immediately and tried to duplicate an accident that would turn him into the Flash. However, the planned accident didn't go as planned and left him scarred and mentally unstable. At the chance of having his face rebuilt, he has it look exactly like Barry Allen, his idol of his entire life, and the hospital expenses cost him the rest of his fortune. This did not matter as he now had a chance to be his revered idol's partner. He attempted to travel back to the past and leave his time impatiently. However, the Cosmic Treadmill had not been used for many years and resulted in it breaking down. As a result, the Treadmill miscalculated the desired time at which Thawne wanted to travel, and sent him a few years after Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Disorientated and disillusioned from the rough time travel, Thawne saw many posters of Barry Allen killing a man known as "Professor Zoom". The poster revealed the man's name as "Eobard Thawne". Thawne's mind snapped and he became psychotic. This resulted in him becoming evil.

Retconned

Eobard was genetically engineered to be the perfect son. Incredibly good looking, an IQ of 167, perfect strawberry-blonde hair, but was still a disappointment to his parents. Thawne's childhood was a lonely one, and it was made even worse with the birth of his brother, Robern. Eobard lost precious time of his schooling, and fell behind his peers in academia because of forced social learning lessons he was mandated to go to with his sibling.

Several years later, Eobard Thawne then hacks into the Flash museum, but Robern, who now works as a Police officer of the future, catches Eobard. Robern strikes Eobard with an elbow to the jaw and arrests Thawne. At this same moment, the Reverse Flash (Professor Zoom) was watching this and erased Robern from the timeline, making it so he was never born. Since Robern was never born, this gave Thawne all his schooling time he needed, and he advanced above and over his classmates. Thawne soon became the leading scientist on the Speed Force, but lost the title to a very overweight Professor Drake. Eobard tries to ask if they could cooperate together and study the speed force together. Professor Drake, now overconfident with his own grandeur, rejects the offer and tells Thawne that he is, "Not needed, nor wanted". This upsets Eobard, and he snaps at Drake. At this exact moment, Reverse Flash emerges again and erases Drake from the timeline, just like he did with Robern. With no Professor Drake not existing, Eobard Thawne keeps his title as the leading scientist in the Speed force, and here he is given his name: "Professor Zoom", by his colleagues and coworkers because of his extensive knowledge on all that is Flash. At this point in his life, however, The secret of the speed force seemed to be unreachable. as part of an intervention for Eobard's obsessive studies, his parents try to have the governor close down the Flash museum permanently. Professor Zoom then goes back in time and kills his own parents, along with Central City's governor, with a tornado vortex. because they died before the governor could close down the museum, Eobard was able to study further, and when alerted to the death of his parents, he neither cared nor thought of it.

After days had gone by, he got a call from a journalist of Central City Science Today who was interested in writing a piece on the famous "Professor Zoom". Her name was Rose, and for the first time in his life, Eobard Thawne would fall in love. He soon became overcome with jealousy after he saw her with a man, and as it turns out, this man was her fiance. Professor Zoom would then go back in time and kill Rose's fiance before his interview, and this led her to believe that he had just run away or disappeared. After conversing for a long time, and having fun, they connected in a very deep way. After their conversation, Eobard asked her to Dinner, as a date, But Rose would refuse. She was determined to wait for her fiance. And so, Eobard waited. After awhile she began dating again, and Eobard kept his distance as a good friend to her. Little did he know however, he had his future self killing Rose's boyfriends within months of their first dating. Determined and in love, Eobard was not afraid to date her. She told him that she did not love Eobard romantically, but Eobard tried his luck and kissed her. Rose became angry and yelled at Thawne, making it clear that she never wanted to see him again. Eobard's future self would find her later in the park by herself and he would mentally scar her for the rest of her life, leaving her a catatonic.

Later that night, Eobard's future self would anonymously send Thawne the suit that belonged to Barry Allen, the second Flash. Eobard soon saw the potential in gaining the secret of the speed force, as it was directly exposed to the speed force. Eobard wasted no time in studying it, and quickly found the way to replicate the accident that gave Barry Allen his powers. Eobard Thawne then dawned the Flash suit and deemed himself the Flash of the 25th century. The Reverse Flash then pushes a woman at a party off of a balcony, giving his younger self his first exposure, and his first good deed. Feeling happy about himself, Thawne was oblivious to his future self looming over him, watching him.

Silver Age

In Eobard's first appearance, he was nothing more than a villain that could use all of the same powers as The Flash. Eventually, he became the archenemy of Barry Allen after proving his skills in several comics and giving Barry a tough fight from time to time.

After some time, Professor Zoom had a brief stint with the first incarnation of the Secret Society of Super Villains and led by Libra, The Villains were able to trick the Justice League into a trap. Beating the Justice League, The Secret Society then switched bodies with the help of Magic, in order to discover the secret identity of the Justice League. Professor Zoom took Hal Jordan's Body, and because of his future foreknowledge, he quickly became familiar with the Ring, and how to use it.

The Secret Society was subsequently beaten, however, after the Heroes made and unexpected comeback, and with a magic artifact of their own, took back their own respectful bodies. Afterwards, the League decided it was best to wipe the memory of the Villains, and pretend it had never happened.

This action would later comeback to bite, as after the events of Identity Crisis, as the members who had their memories wiped clashed with the Justice League of America, out for vengeance. Professor Zoom had already died by this point, and was not part of the fighting force of super villains who came back for revenge.

Modern Age

Professor Zoom was mysteriously resurrected by Geoff Johns, and was soon revealed in the Blackest Night arc, that he was resurrected as a Black Lantern, who was then chosen as a White Lantern. Professor Zoom was also responsible for the Flashpoint story arc.

Major Story Arcs

The Flash V1 #275

Thawne began traveling back in time to battle the Flash to get revenge on him, using his knowledge of "history" to his advantage. Zoom also repeatedly attempted to strike at Barry by going after Iris. It had seemed that he finally got his satisfactory revenge against Barry when he killed her at a costume party, vibrating his hand into her head.

The Flash V1 #321 - 325

It took a long time for Allen to get his life back together after this. Shortly after, he had found love again, and Zoom reappeared, threatening to kill his new fiance on Allen's second wedding day. Terrified that history would repeat itself, Allen instinctively and inadvertently kills his enemy, breaking Thawne's neck in a final struggle.

In the Trial of Barry Allen, Professor Zoom reappeared to wreak havoc and kill Flash in the process.

The Flash V2 #74 - 79: The Return of Barry Allen

When Eobard learned the truth he grew mad. He began to believe that he was really Barry Allen. So he showed up on Wally's door on Christmas Eve dressed as his uncle Barry Allen. For several months, he and Wally protected the streets of Keystone City. Everything seemed to be going great and everyone was happy but that came to an end when Eobard went mad again. In a battle against Combine, a combine agent started to brag that he had killed Barry in a battle awhile back. Eobard snapped and started to beat him up, saying "I Am The Flash". This is when Wally realized something was wrong, and that he was not his uncle Barry.

When Wally tried to confront his so called uncle Barry, Eobard got very angry and threw Wally into a combine trap and left him to die. Eobard went completely mad, he began to fight Wally, Jay Garrick, Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick. Nobody knew what was going on. They tried to calm Eobard down thinking he was really Barry Allen, but Eobard just kept attacking. But still nobody threw a single punch. They didn't have the heart to strike at the one they once loved. Wally couldn't believe what had happened. He began to become sad and laid around at home and kept telling his self that he would never become the Flash again. The next day Wally was walking in an alley, that's when he found the biography of Barry Allen's life. He knew that this was not Barry and that he was Eobard Thawne. He quickly put on his Flash suit and ran to tell everyone.

Later, Wally and Thawne met up at the Flash Museum. Eobard had changed his suit to his future costume Professor Zoom which was yellow. They fought and Wally was taking a beating. Thawne seemed too fast for Wally. But Wally knew what he had to do. He was holding back. He was afraid of becoming what his uncle once was and that was the Flash. After regaining his confidence, he didn't hold back anymore and started to pound on Eobard. Wally then tricked Eobard to getting back on the time treadmill and returning back to his timeline. When Eobard arrived back home, he had no memories of his trip and didn't remember anything of his battle with Wally. The only thing he had been left with was a very deep hatred for Barry Allen.

The Flash: Rebirth

Eobard Thawne; Generator of the Negative Speed Force

Professor Zoom appears within the Speed Force in The Flash: Rebirth. He is apparently the one responsible for Barry's return and transformation into the Black Flash, having the unfortunate ability to kill any speedster he touches. Barry discovers this unfortunate power after he vaporizes Savitar. Barry, fearful that he will inadvertently kill Jay, Wally and Bart with a touch, returns to the speed force. As he runs into the speed force the black costume burns off. When he does return, Eobard Thawne appears and explains that Barry was infected with Thawne's negative speed force energy which was causing him to cancel out other speedsters with his touch (but which was canceled out when Barry, by running back into the speed force, generated enough positive energy to rid himself of it).

Barry then questions Thawne's return, the villain acknowledges that he will be resurrected soon, thanks to a "good friend" of Barry's. As the empowered Thawne beats Barry and Max, he reveals that the red energy field the three are in is a "negative speed force" that is being created by the Reverse-Flash's kinetic energy. Thawne's negative energy is slowly starting to poison the normal Speed Force like a cancer. Thawne goes on to reveal the depth of his plan: after Barry briefly returned to aid Kid Flash against Superboy-Prime during the Infinite Crisis, Thawne was able to send a subliminal pulse into the Speed Force to draw back what was left of Barry's self-awareness. This in turn led to the hero's reappearance during the Final Crisis.

Afterward, Thawne transformed himself into "a new kind of speedster" (revealing himself to be the mysterious murderer from the beginning of the story) and created his negative speed force to contaminate Barry and the other heroic speedsters. Before Barry can fight any further, Thawne fades away.

Thawne then attempts to cause all manner of trouble in the Flash Family. He attacks Wally's family, focusing on Irey and Jai. He explains that their erratic powers are due to the fact that their connection to the speed force is 'tangled.' He is interrupted in his attempt to kill the twins by Wally and Jay. This event leads Irey, in an attempt to save her brother, to give up her connection to the speed force, though she inadvertently gains full access in the process. She then becomes the new Impulse.

Thawne then decides to go back in time and kill Iris, thus causing Barry the most amount of pain and suffering. Thawne cannot kill Barry, or his negative speed force will be canceled. In this spirit, Thawne tells Barry to cast his mind back to all the negative things that have happened to him in his life, and how they were all caused by Thawne. Barry puts the pieces together and deduces that Thawne, not his father as previously believed, killed his mother, which Thawne proudly admits.

Thawne then puts on a burst of speed, rushing off to kill Iris, removing Barry's lightning rod. Thawne finds Iris just as she is walking to meet Barry for their first date, (this also being the night that the lightning struck the chemicals which caused Barry to become the Flash). Barry and Wally follow him back in time to stop Thawne seconds before he delivers the killing blow to Iris. When Barry and Wally entered the past to stop Thawne from killing Iris they became the impetus for the bolt of lightning that struck the shelf of chemicals- thus Barry and Wally became the lightning that gave powers to Barry and created the Speed Force.

Barry and Wally then push Thawne back to the present, trapping him in a vibrational frequency chamber (originally designed to hold Barry when he thought he was the Black Flash) designed to sever his connection to the negative speed force. While Thawne can never be fully separated from the negative speed force (he creates it when he runs, just as Barry creates the Speed Force as he runs), the vibrational frequency chamber depowered him long enough for him to be sedated and incarcerated (in the present) in Iron Heights.

Blackest Night

During Blackest Night, as Owen Harkness and Tar Pit inspect the Rogues' secret graveyard, a black ring finds the body of Eobard Thawne (where he was buried after Barry snapped his neck). Thawne then seeks out Barry, hoping to get an emotional rise out of him. However, this Thawne has no knowledge of the events of Flash: Rebirth. Barry then deduces that this Thawne has no knowledge of the resurrection that Thawne mentioned to Barry whilst they were in the negative speed force. However, Black Lantern Thawne and resurrected Thawne (currently incarcerated in Iron Heights) are still connected, as demonstrated when Captain Cold, who was investigating Iron Heights with the Rogues at the same time Black Lantern Thawne was battling with Barry, sets of a cold grenade, freezing the penitentiary. Resurrected Thawne is frozen along with the rest of the inmates, and Black Lantern Thawne is frozen as well. Barry then concludes that this Black Lantern Thawne is indeed the same one that is in Iron Heights, but at different points in their timeline.

Zoom during Blackest Night

Later, the means of Professor Zoom's resurrection are made clear. He is one of the twelve heroes and villains to be resurrected by a White Lantern ring. Through his White Lantern ring, Eobard was granted life from the Life Entity because his role in Barry's resurrection.

After his resurrection Thawne states that he is going home. Flash almost apprehends him, but is distracted by Digger Harkness and Thawne escapes, presumably into the future, thus setting the stage for the events of The Flash: Rebirth.

Most recently Thawne was freed from Iron Heights by Harkness, who wanted to know what Thawne had seen in visions since his resurrection. Thawne provides him with no answers, only stating that freeing Thawne will have negative implications for Harkness in the future. Thawne then disappears Into the future.

Road to Flashpoint

Professor Zoom appears to be impersonating a young boy who the police mistakenly believe to be a witness to the mysterious murderer who can drastically aged anyone. Thawne is stealing the life force from children like Elongated Kid to help him change his age and conceal his identity from Barry Allen. Later on, Professor Zoom reveals his true identity to Patty Spivot, Barry Allen's assistant, and tells her that her death will alter the current timeline. Fortunately, Barry managed to convince Hot Pursuit, his alternate self, that Bart Allen was not the child who was responsible for Elongated Kid’s death or the one causing temporal anomalies. Within seconds, Barry remembers that the police brought in a young boy who claimed to have witnessed the murder.

The two speedsters arrive in seconds to stop Thawne’s attempt to murder Patty but when Thawne figures out that Pursuit is a version of Barry, he immediately drains the life force from him. Thawne reduces Hot Pursuit to pile of dust and gloats on how he has completed the purpose that the Entity of the White Lantern had given him. Thawne escapes and disguises himself as an old man in the crowd thanks to the Speed Force. Barry admits his defeat and realizes that Thawne has tapped into hidden abilities within the Speed Force. Barry goes to visit his mother’s grave, who was also murdered by Thawne. Thawne watches Barry suffer from afar and he knows things are going to change for everyone. At this point, a lightning bolt strikes the center of the cemetery thus leading up to the Flashpoint event.

Flashpoint

Flash finds himself in a new reality, and it is made clear that Eobard Thawne in part responsible for this new reality when Barry opens his ring not to find his red flash suit, but Thawne's reverse flash suit. Later during the resistance's fight against Wonder Woman and Aquaman, a great destructive force lays waste to the armies and Professor Zoom appears before Barry. Thawne quickly dispatches of Thomas Wayne, and a battle ensues between the old rivals. Thawne is beating down Barry, and explains that he is now in full control of the Negative Speed Force, and he is removed from reality. Seeing a loophole, Thomas Wayne uses an amazonian sword and impales Eobard Thawne through the heart.

Powers & Abilities

Vast Superhuman Speed

Eobard possesses such vast speed that not even the likes of Superman can match him.

Negative Speed Force Conduit

Eobard created his own Speed Force the same way Barry created the normal Speed Force. By duplicating the incident that granted the latter his powers, Professor Zoom was able to create his own Negative Speed Force by generating it through kinetic energy.

Super Speed

Eobard can tap into it as normal speedsters can with the normal Speed Force and can apparently shut off their connection to the latter by "contaminating" it with negative energy. Through this, he has the ability to create multiple after images like Hunter Zolomon, the modern day Zoom, and can travel through and alter time (a feat which most speedsters were never capable of achieving).

Phasing

Thawne can control his body at the molecular level, allowing him to vibrate his body through solid objects. While in this intangible state, he is able to breathe, but is immune to any airborne viruses. He is also able to vibrate so fast that light doesn't reflect off of him, rendering him invisible to the human eye. He retains sight even in this state.

Human Tornado

Related to his super speed, Thawne is able to run in a circle and create a vortex. This vortex can be used for numerous purposes, such as pulling air out of the center to suffocate an enemy, levitating whatever is in the center, send a person in the center to another dimension, funnel toxic gases, and create a barrier, among other uses. He is also able to create tornado-like winds by spinning his arms quickly, and can use these to various effects, usually offensive.

Vast Superhuman Intelligence

At birth, Thawne was genetically modified to have an IQ of 167. Thawne's brain moves as fast as he does, meaning he is able to think extremely quickly. He is able to read a book at super speed, and retains this information in his short term memory just long enough to implement whatever he has learned. He is also a skilled forensic scientist. He is able to alter his perceptions in such a way that time appears to pass differently for him. In the span of a second he may have experienced years, and been able to alter elements of his environment while the time was passing, such as replacing a falling object or disarming an opponents weapon.

Eobard is also very intelligent and although not a very good fighter, Eobard uses his genius brain which can react and think at the speed of light, to his advantage.

New Abilities

In Road to Flashpoint, Professor Zoom exhibits his total control of the speed force, such as:

Time Travel

Thawne no longer needs a cosmic treadmill to travel through time. He can do this as effortlessly as running down a city block. During the New 52, Thawne appears to have become even faster, moving along the time stream as fast as he wishes, much like one time successor Hunter Zolomon.

Youth Draining

Thawne can leech off "youth" and time from individuals to add to his own.

Shapeshifting

Thawne can transform into different stages of age appearance such as changing into a boy, or a senior citizen.

Existence Erasing

Thawne also learned to have the power to erase anyone from the timeline, removing all traces of that person's existence. He first tested this on Doug's friend, proving his "theory" worked.

Time Manipulation

When Eobard Thawne is experimenting with his new found powers, he goes to the past and freezes time at the exact spot before Barry get's struck by lightning, and freezes time in it's place.

Weapons & Equipment

Eobard comes from the 25th Century, so therefore has 25th Century gadgets. He mainly uses these gadgets when he really needs to, like when planning a trap.

Two examples of gadgets are a locket that contains Element Z, which allows him to go superspeed. Another one is a costume that used to belong to Barry Allen that has been enhanced so that it makes the wearer go at superspeed.

Alternate Realities

Batman Beyond

In the mini series comic, it is revealed that Eobard has an ancestor living in the future.

Other Media

Television

In the Season 2 finale, Brainiac created evil robot versions of the Justice Lords. The Flash's counterpart wore the reversed colors like Zoom's costume. His insults to Flash, calling him things such as a slacker and clown, are reminiscent of Zoom's insults. He was voiced by Michael Rosenbaum who had also been the voice of the Flash throughout the series.

Professor Zoom appears in the episode "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!" voiced by John Wesley Shipp (who played Barry Allen in the original Flash TV series). He was the evil ruler of the 25th Century upon being chased there by Barry Allen. So by using the Cosmic Treadmill, the other two Flashes, Jay Garrick, Wally West (in his Kid Flash alias) and Batman get there to stop him.

The Reverse Flash is the main antagonist of the first season of the Flash. As Eobard Thawne, he is played by Matt Letscher. Throughout most of the season, he is played by Tom Cavanagh when he is disguised as Dr. Harrison Wells. After years of battling the Flash, Thawne decides to go back in time to kill the Flash as a child so he wouldn't exist. The Flash follows him back in time and saves his younger self, so Thawne decides to kill his mother instead as a way to give him a tragedy that might cause him not to become the Flash. By making it so that the Flash would never exist, he cut himself off from the Speed Force and couldn't go back to his future. He needed to figure out a way to create the Flash again so he decides to kill and replace Dr. Harrison Wells because he is known for creating the Particle Accelerator. He also kills Wells' wife. He uses his knowledge of the future to make the Particle Accelerator several years before Wells was originally supposed to. During his time as Harrison Wells, he creates relationships with Dr. Tina McGee, Caitlin Snow, Ronnie Raymond, Hartley Rathaway, and Cisco Ramon. Caitlin, Ronnie, and Cisco help him with the Particle Accelerator but it fails and explodes shortly after turning on. The explosion sets off Dark Matter waves that affects many people into becoming metahumans. The most important of these people was Barry Allen. Thawne also makes it look as though the explosion caused him to become paralyzed from the waist down. He uses a mechanized wheelchair to charge up a device to give him his speed powers while he mentors Barry in order to train him to go faster and create the Speed Force. He also is responsible for creating Gorilla Grodd. He had a monkey that he named Grodd who was affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion, making him grow 10 feet tall and giving him telepathic abilities. As he trains Barry to get faster, he starts to become fond of him despite originally hating him. He fights the Flash a couple times before his identity revealed. He was referred to as "The Man in the Yellow Suit" and later Cisco names him the Reverse Flash. Before they find out his identity, he kills Cisco by phasing his hand through his chest but the Flash had gone back in time during a Weather Wizard attack and changed the timeline so it didn't happen without even knowing it. Toward the end of the season, Barry and the S.T.A.R. Labs team figure out his identity and get answers from Thawne. He proposes to Barry that he can help him go back in time to save his mother but he has to allow him to travel back to his future. Barry goes back to save his mom but changes his mind so he won't change the timeline he's been living. He goes back to the present and stops Thawne from going to the future. Thawne becomes angry and decides to kill Barry and all his family and friends. Eddie Thawne, who is his ancestor from the 21st century, decides to kill himself so that the Reverse Flash would never exist. He changes back from Harrison Wells to Eobard Thawne and then disappears from existence. The alteration to the timeline creates a singularity that causes a black hole in Central City that will erase this version of the universe and reset it to what it would be like if the Thawne bloodline ends with Eddie.

In Season 2, Dr. Harrison Wells comes from Earth-2 but has no connection to Eobard Thawne. In the episode "The Reverse-Flash Returns," a younger Eobard Thawne accidentally comes from his future to the year 2016. By doing this, he discovers what time period the Flash is from. He tries to force Dr. Tina McGee to use her tachyon device to help send him back to the future. Barry eventually finds out he's there and stops him by destroying the device. They fight and he catches him and locks him up inside the Particle Accelerator prison they use for metahumans. By keeping Thawne from returning to his future, a paradox is created and is slowly killing Cisco because of his connection to timelines and the multiverse. Barry ends up helping Thawne return to his time, knowing they will meet again in the future.

Video Games

DC Universe Online

DC Universe Online

Professor Zoom appears in the MMORPG, DC Universe Online. He was voiced by Robert Dieke.

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Injustice: Gods Among Us

With the release of a new batch of DLC costumes, NetherRealm Studios has created Blackest Night Costumes for the entire roster of the playable characters. Among the roster, Flash receives a Black Lantern costume too, however, it is of the Reverse Flash, Eobard Thawne. This is proven by the alignment of the chest insignia, as his Flash symbol is reverse of Barry's, and the fact that Barry Allen never became possessed by a Black Lantern Ring during the entire event.

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Professor Zoom appears in the third installment of the Lego Batman video game franchise. He is voiced by Liam O'Brien.